Discrete Charm Of The Illogical But Lucrative

First, a story on obesity and weight:
http://www.hot-topix.com/tba-dc-articles/#.Ud5u9dgQPnC

According to the University study, drinking diet soda does nothing to help you lose or even control your weight¹. In fact, it does the exact opposite and actually boosts your risk of packing on the pounds by a whopping 41% for every can or bottle you crack open each day.

This means if you drink two cans a day, your risk shoots up 82%. Drink 3 cans and your risk skyrockets to 123%. Consume just four small 12 oz cans and you just increased the risk of expanding your waistline by an incredible 164%!
To put these percentages in perspective, researches discovered those who drank two or more cans of diet soda per day ended up increasing their waist circumference five times more than those people who didn't drink diet soda²...

The article ends with:

That's the bad news. The good news is drinking diet soda doesn't have to be the be-all, end-all sentence to weight gain. By simply replacing one can of diet soda with healthier drinks like water, green tea, seltzer water or coffee you can drastically cut the odds of you getting a bigger belly.

However, if you're not ready to put the breaks on your diet soda habit just yet… fitness celebrity and author of the book 4 Minute Abs™ Jake Hunter recommends a very simple way to speed up your metabolism, so the diet drinks you consume don't go straight to your waistline.

For free information about this simple yet highly effective metabolic 'trick' that is currently being used by Hollywood celebrities and tens of thousands of people across the country, visit Jake Hunter's website by clicking here for a quick 7 minute video featuring this very unusual technique.

The article refers to a study which has a link in the notes, in small print, and is not linked in the body of the article.
In that study, one finds:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20050613/drink-more-diet-soda-gain-more-weight

 June 13, 2005 -- People who drink diet soft drinks don't lose weight. In fact, they gain weight, a new study shows.
The findings come from eight years of data collected by Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. Fowler reported the data at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego...

Fowler is quick to note that a study of this kind does not prove that diet soda causes obesity. More likely, she says, it shows that something linked to diet soda drinking is also linked to obesity.
"One possible part of the explanation is that people who see they are beginning to gain weight may be more likely to switch from regular to diet soda," Fowler suggests. "But despite their switching, their weight may continue to grow for other reasons. So diet soft-drink use is a marker for overweight and obesity."
Why? Nutrition expert Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, puts it in a nutshell.
"You have to look at what's on your plate, not just what's in your glass," Bonci tells WebMD...

and

There is actually a way that diet drinks could contribute to weight gain, Fowler suggests...

That may be just what happens when we offer our bodies the sweet taste of diet drinks, but give them no calories. Fowler points to a recent study in which feeding artificial sweeteners to rat pups made them crave more calories than animals fed real sugar.

"If you offer your body something that tastes like a lot of calories, but it isn't there, your body is alerted to the possibility that there is something there and it will search for the calories promised but not delivered," Fowler says.

Perhaps, Bonci says, our bodies are smarter than we think.
"People think they can just fool the body. But maybe the body isn't fooled," she says. "If you are not giving your body those calories you promised it, maybe your body will retaliate by wanting more calories. Some soft drink studies do suggest that diet drinks stimulate appetite."

I wondered greatly at the possible reason that the first article did not highlight the original study. It became obvious soon enough.

We use the same procedure in debates over religion and morality, where we cherry-pick our authoritative quotes and references to scriptures.

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